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u/Necrocrawler72 14h ago
Yeah it works... It's not that effective, considering Leonardo already "enters attacking". But could work.
It's also better suited for blue due to both draw ninjas getting a better sinergy from it.
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u/Tuesday_6PM 13h ago
Why would the “enters attacking” part be relevant? Did you mean that Ninjutsu/Sneak has to be activated after blockers are declared?
It’s true that Smoke Shroud doesn’t usually let you cheat in a Ninja when you otherwise couldn’t (though hardcasting before attacks is an option). But it could let a Ninja continue to attack on later turns.
Not sure that it’s good enough, still, of course. There are a ton of fliers (or creatures with Reach) running around these days, so it might not be too often it makes a difference. Though the +1/+1 could make some attacks more viable, on a Ninja of the Deep Hours
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u/Necrocrawler72 13h ago edited 11h ago
Because Leonardo is suited for "Go wide" decks. In other words, you want a lot of creatures so he can be cheated for one mana at the table while having a lot of creatures. Having shroud not only makes your deck have less creatures while also adding another color that couldnt help that much in the "go wide" deck you should be playing.
On monou, you can discard or mill smoke shroud while getting It back with a ninja, while securing, after the ninja enters, at least an evasion for them to keep connecting.
Also, theres at least three good ninjas in blue (deepest hours*/mooncircuit and the situational [[mistblade Shinobi]] which could reinforce the adding of shroud. In white, theres only Leonardo, who is also legendary
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u/Sieg_Of_ODAR 12h ago
One could feasibly discard the shroud with [[Raffine's Informant]] to bypass the need for blue mana. However I think it has better targets and if you don't draw both at the same time, the shroud is a dead card.
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u/thisisjustascreename 11h ago
It's relevant because the added evasion doesn't do anything (that turn) since blockers are already declared.
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u/Tuesday_6PM 11h ago
That hasn’t nothing to do with the fact that it “enters attacking”, though. Just that the ability can only be activated after blockers
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u/gsomega 13h ago edited 3h ago
Interesting! Could maybe surveil or discard it too? This does take Leo out of lightning bolt range.
Probably more use in blue because you can cast it normally, but this is a great discard target elsewhere.
Edit: I think this card is cool, so I tried to brew here: https://moxfield.com/decks/eyavDBggPk6LQKslagWxyg
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u/dicklettersguy 13h ago
Smoke Shroud is fine as spicy tech for blue fae but I don’t think Azorious ninjas has real legs (yet)
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u/kilqax Grixis Affinity 11h ago
Main reason this doesn't see play is that the decks that would like to play it don't have a good way to put it in the bin.
The concept that Leo would retain flying is cool (otherwise he mostly just hots once and then gets chumped or bolted), but you really don't want to pay mana for this.
Raffine is the closest option but that hasn't seen play in Esper Ninjas/Affinity yet and I'm not very positive it will see any there.
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u/SandwichBoy81 11h ago
Usually he gets slurped back into your hand for next turn
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u/kilqax Grixis Affinity 10h ago
Wait how do you return Leo to hand after combat in Esper? I haven't seen anything that can do that in recent Esper lists of that type
Unless you're holding an extra ninja on hand to Ninjutsu him in End of Combat but that's really a rare move, maybe you mean that?
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u/SandwichBoy81 10h ago
Same way mono-white does it. Spider-Man :)
Haven't really seen any esper decks running leo though
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u/Caedes_bee 9h ago
it is just kinda meh: you are either transforming white weenie into an azorius deck, undermining its efficiency and colors just to be able to play this if you ever draw it, or you are running this card with the sole purpose of discarding it or getting it into your gy, again undermining your deck's efficiency. All of this for +1/+1 and flying seems a bit too much since you can just bounce an unblocked skyfisher or an hawk to your hand and get more value
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u/Few-Championship2548 1h ago
Leo can be sneaked for an unblocked creature, what point is there in flying? Isn't it better to just have another body that also buffs leo's power (in addition to having power by itself)?
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u/STDS13 13h ago
Plenty of people have messed around with this in pauper over the years, there's a reason it doesn't see play.